The landscape of this NHL season is constantly changing and this week has been quite dramatic. With so many teams losing players and games, COVID is wreaking havoc on both real and fantasy lineups. This week on Frozen Tool Forensics, we are going to try to get a handle on what has changed over the course of the season thus far (acknowledging that there have still been more changes this week). Our goal is to try and find the winners and losers particularly in the area of deployment. Injuries and COVID absences all mean roster spots open up, and it is helpful to know who is stepping into roles.

This is a period piece that I run every few months to keep on top the changes we are seeing in the league. Essentially, we are going to be looking at total time on ice and percent of total power-play time to get an idea of how players are being deployed by their coaches. In order to do this, we need to run a report that contains these features for two different time periods. In this instance we are going to be using the Big Board report for the last two weeks (run on Thursday) and compare it to a Big Board report from the first two weeks of the season.

First up: top gains in total ice time. (Note: All table data in this article does not include Thursday’s games.)

Jaccob Slavin and Conor Sheary have seen an increased role in part due to injuries. Slavin was promoted to the top power-play and to a larger even strength role when Anthony DeAngelo went down with an injury. DeAngelo returned to action on Thursday, which cut into Slavin's power-play time. Sheary has been bouncing around the lineup a bit, getting a chance at top deployment with injuries to T.J. Oshie and Tom Wilson. In Washington's most recent game (12/15), he was on an even-strength line with Oshie and the newly returned Nicklas Backstrom, and on the top power-play. Evgeny Kuznetsov and Wilson were not in the lineup, though, so it remains to be seen what his deployment will look one once they return.

Pavel Buchnevich is up almost seven minutes from the start of the season and is currently loving the increased minutes. He has 15 points in his last 11 games, and eight over the past seven as indicated above. In St. Louis' most recent game (12/14) he was skating with Vladimir Tarasenko at both even strength and on the power play. He has been playing with Tarasenko since the start of the seasons, but since November they have gotten a nice uptick in time on ice, plus now Buchnevich is on the top power-play.

Our next list is players who have lost the most time on ice.

Topping our list here are some defensemen who have gotten somewhat inconsistent deployment all season, but the names I wanted to address here are Yanni Gourde and Elias Pettersson.

Pettersson (and the Canucks) were an absolute disaster to start the season. The last five or so games have definitely been better with a new coach, but as we can see from his time on ice, Pettersson's averages are still low. There is some small hope as in his most recent game (12/16) he was up over 18 minutes a night for only the third time in his last ten games. He is still not on what appears to be the top power-play (not playing with J.T. Miller and Quinn Hughes) and what appears to be a 1B line with Conor Garland and Vasily Podkolzin. Potentially good news for his wingers, but not great for Pettersson.

Gourde, though currently injured, has seen a similar drop in ice time. He started the season on the top line with Jaden Schwartz and Jordan Eberle, and on the top power-play, seeing over 20 minutes a night. Seattle has been a line blender all season and Gourde has dropped to about 17 minutes a night on average and seeing less than a minute a night on the power-play in 11 of his 13 most recent starts. It looks like Dave Hakstol was originally hoping to use him as a top-line center and is now deploying much more like a second- or third-line player who gets deployed against other team's top skaters.

Power-play increases:

We have already touched on Slavin and Sheary getting boosts for team injuries and add to that list Jonas Brodin (in for Jared Spurgeon), Ivan Barbashev (in for Robert Thomas), and Ondrej Kase (in for Mitch Marner).

Calle Jarnkrok has been bouncing around a bit as Seattle continues to shake up lines, so his average time is good – but can go games without much time at all.

Sonny Milano has been getting decent power-play time since the first few weeks of the season and as has been documented very publicly with shared video clips, is forming some nice chemistry with Trevor Zegras. He has recently been on the top power-play with Zegras, Rickard Rakell, and Ryan Getzlaf. On this list he has one of the best longer-term options as many of the above have only gained their time temporarily.

Power-play decreases:

We touched on Gourde already, so let's move to Kevin Fiala. I really don't know what to make of this situation. His total time on ice is not good. He has been averaging around 15 minutes a night on the third line. He has also not been getting good power-play time. On Sunday he did see over 50% (barely – 51.3%) with some time with the top power-play, which ended a five-game drought where he was getting 20-30% of his team's time. But he was back to only 26.7 %PP on Thursday. For what it is worth, there is some indication that his current 53-point pace is a little low, even given his deployment, but the low ice time and the inconsistent power-play time is worrying.

That is all for this week

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